Priest-heavy parties (expect spoilers)

[Aerich]

Well, it's about time to post here again. I've been busy, so I've only just finished DE lvl 3 with the party.

It was pretty easy, really. I only used a few spells against the Cold Wights. Kept my tough dwarf out front with Protection from Fire, followed up with Fireball, cast Wall of Moonlight right behind the dwarf, and backed up the dwarf once casting was complete. Also used Web, Entangle, and Spike Growth when I ran out of spells for my preferred tactic. Various single target spells + Moonblade when I got swamped. I dualed my thief to cleric on this level, so now I have 3 clerical casters and 2 druidic casters. Plenty of healing between fights.

Had a picture perfect 3-stage fight against Presio & Co. Started by casting Protection 10' Radius right after resting.

1st Stage - Left 5 characters on the other side of the bridge, cast Mirror Image and Shield with the Fighter/Mage, walked forward to absorb trap damage and the Imbued Wights' Magic Missiles. Drew all the Wights, a big bunch of poison zombies and Presio's apprentice to the bridge, where Entangle, Moonwall, and Spike Growth were waiting. Cast a Fireball into the mess, turned undead to blow up the remaining poison zombies (the Wights died via Moonwall and weapons), and spelled and shot the apprentice to pieces after bringing down the Mirror Images with Magic Missile. He/She got off a spell, but Slow doesn't do squat against Rings of Free Action.

2nd Stage - set up camp a few paces back of the entrance to Presio's round lair. Cast a Moonwall for luck (and in case there were more Imbued Wights) and sent the F/M to draw more. This time, got a Warrior and the rest of the poison zombies. The Warrior fell to a barrage of Magical Stones and Sunscorches, and the poison zombies approached my undead-turning F/C and blew up into chunks.

3rd Stage - Outside Presio's lair, I summoned undead and animals to my summoning limit, and Hasted them. Moved the F/M forward to draw Presio, who cast Cloudkill. Backed off to let it expire, but Presio came out before it did. I cast Web, Magical Stone, Sunscorch, Alicorn Lance, Curse, and Recitation (all in the same round; this party rocks!). Presio still saved against my Web, and my stupid animal summons walked right into the cloud; bye-bye fodder. The Cloudkill-immune undead delayed Presio a bit, giving me time for a round of Magical Stones and Alicorn Lances. Presio finished the undead and moved up to engage, and I delivered the coup de grace in melee.

Got some decent spells, the Hammer Flail, the poison dagger, and a magical crossbow (which no one has proficiency for; too bad).

The only slight worry I have is that my thief's skills are inactive for a while. There's a lot of traps on DE lvl 5, and I hope I don't have to walk over all of them with Mirror Image. I might regain my skills before then, but I doubt it, with a thief level of 11. That would be a LOT of resting, and a lot of cold wights.

[ 07-07-2004, 05:02 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Aerich]

Whoops, should add in a bit about the trolls and priests of Talona on lvl 2.

I decided that I didn't want to fight them in the little corridor, so I kept my party just before the bridge that gives access to the rubble-strewn passage. Used a character with the Boots of the Fox (found them with the Fireball scroll; Yesss!) to draw the first troll. All of it's buddies + the remaining priests came with it, right into two Entangles and a Web. Cast an Animate Dead to provide fodder if anything got free, and threw in a pair of Spike Growths. The priests couldn't cast, because they were either paralysed by Web or disrupted by the Entangle or the spikes. Fired away with my puny slings. Once the trolls were sufficiently hurt, I threw in a Fireball to finish everything off. One troll escaped the entire mess, but went after my summons, giving me ample time to finish it off with Burning Hands.

[SpongeLikeCow]

Good thread. I'm not man enough to play on Insane yet.

[Aerich]

It's actually not that bad. Having 6 spellcasters with lots of healing, summoning and movement-inhibiting spells makes it a LOT easier. The double experience is a definite help for casters.

The trick is to develop tactics that reduce the melee dependence of your party, and spells like Hold Person and Web become amazingly valuable, as are summons.

[Cienden]

Oh yeah, web and entangle were my favorite horde slow down spells while madly calling up summons. Too bad D&D 3E ruined entangle with limiting where you could cast it.

[Aerich]

Should add in a bit more. I'm about half-way through DE lvl 5 (not a whole lotta time to play, lately).

Level 4 was tough. I did my standard tactic, which is to trap up the first passage and kill off Albion and the librarian. Managed that with no difficulty, although one of my characters got Slowed. Took down the assorted lizardmen, priests, trolls, and yuan-ti that came after me; mostly with missile weapons (two Entangles and a Web slows things down pretty well, and two Spike Growth helps a lot, too). Tossed in the obligatory Fireball to finish off the trolls, and summoned some undead on the other side of the mess to slow down some more yuan-ti. No problems so far, right?

Waited for the Spike Growth to expire, then wandered down the right-side corridor. Went after the healer, who escaped for long enough to open the door into the room above her (with the yuan-ti eating villagers around the table). Luckily, I only drew the priest leader, who wasn't so tough. Wanted to take out the summoner on my first run through, so I went back out the door and around. Here's where it gets ugly.

Had to fight some more lizardmen; that was fine, except I triggered the four yuan-ti mages as well. Two showed up behind the rest of my party, and two showed up against the dwarf who was running point. I Webbed up the doorway and summoned some insects to help with the lizards who made their saving throws. Nice idea, but I got Bombardier beetles, who stunned my tough fighter/cleric and made him a defenceless (and soon dead) target. My other characters were spelling for their lives, and couldn't help out. My free-actioned, stunned F/C was on the other side of a webbed doorway, and the only other ring-wearer was in hand-to-hand with a mage at the opposite end of the hallway. The first time I've ever reloaded on this level.

Ok, second time around. Didn't summon the insects, got dire wolves instead. Webbed the doorway AND the hallway behind my party. Dwarf and wolves took out the lizardmen that came through the door, but all four mages came from behind. Unfortunately, they were just out of the Webbed area, and so weren't paralysed. Cast a Spike Growth on them to help disrupt, and summoned animals right next to them. Most of the bears promptly got stuck in my Web, but a couple got through. I cast every single offensive spell in my repertoire, but my druid kept getting disrupted by multiple magic missile spells. I had to pull her back to shapechange (for the heal) and cast a couple Cure Critical Wounds. Eventually took out the mages, then healed up and went after the Summoner.

The summoner was a disappointing denouement. He and his priests fell to summoned creatures and full-out missile fire. Went down a level to rest up, came up again to hammer down the feasting yuan-ti, and let out the adventurers.

[Charles the Paladin]

Aerich,
You've gotten the admiration of many, it seems with your priest party- I'll be curious to see how they do with higher level enemies in the game who have a lot of magic resistance- but maybe by then, their fighting ability will be just fine. I've enjoyed the cleric I've used. My druid hasn't been so easy to deal with as magic weapons for her are scarce until later in the game. I learned the hard way that halberds,spears, scimitars (only one I know of) and staffs are scarce. Maces, hammers, and axes are all over the place, so keep this in mind when updating your proficiencies. Good job and good luck.

[Chewbacca]

When I read this thread a few days back I became inspired to start a new trio game with a F/M/T, a F/C, and Druid. Im not crazy enough to play on insane yet, but I'm unsettled enough to try it on hard.

So far so good, a few reloads here and there, and I have made it to level 4 of Dragon Eye. It is gettin kinda hectic!

Anyway thanks for the great read and the inspiration Aerich! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Aerich]

You're welcome, Chewie. Good luck with the party, I'm sure it's a lot of fun.

I'm glad this extensive on-line logbook is inspirational (in a small way) to others. It's a fun way to play, and it probably gets overlooked a lot in favour of the simple fighter emphasis style. I'm hoping to finish off Her Snakeness this week but I'm preparing for a weekend camping trip as well. I'll see if I can do it; playing time is the issue, not difficulty.

I'm using Haste a fair bit, necessitating frequent trips to rest on lvl 4, because it's quite difficult to take out tough ranged attackers by luring them into spelltraps. The 2x HP archers, especially, can clean out my slingers and disrupt my (slow, priestly) casters from range if I don't get up close. With 6 characters I can usually disrupt the priests, but I prefer a surer method of dealing with them; that one spell they get off can be catastrophic. Summons aren't so good, because of their Thac0 and because my dualled thief-cleric is still just a cleric right now. It would cost me a few spells to scout effectively for summons placement. That said, I cast Haste to clean up, after I've tried everything else and am running out of spells.

[Aerich]

Ok, just returned to IWD last night, putting aside Disciples II for the first time since I got it. I cleaned out DE lvl 5 right up to Yuxonomei's door, then returned to Kuldahar. I want to buy items from Orrick before his inventory changes, and I'd also like to see if there's any more spells and potions I can buy to help me with Y and company.

I took the High Torturer with ease. Initiate dialogue, fireball, Web, Spike Growth; one tank out front to block, and missiles and low level druid spells (Alicorn Lance and Sunscorch) to finish.

Had a bit of trouble with the priests in the round room. They all saved against Entangle, thus getting themselves out of my multiple Spike Growths. One got off a Hold Person before my Silence hit, and unfortunately stopped my two best casters in mid-chant (6th lvl elemental summoning, and fireball; blah). Managed alright with Prayer, undead summons to shield, and a Dominated priest. Had to run a bit with my F/C tank, as he took the majority of hits and a Static Charge. Healed him up and moved on.

Picture perfect fight against the corridor ambush outside Y's room, except that I kept walking over traps (see more in the Grr...traps thread). Summons led the way through the door and gave me enough time to cast Spike Growth, Entangle, Confusion, Insect Plague, and Recitation. I backed off the party and let the yuan-ti weaken each other. Once those spells were done, I drew the injured remainder into a Cloud of Pestilence and concentrated missile fire. Took almost no damage from the enemy, other than a couple arrow hits on the tank; took more damage from traps.

Moved into the upper room to destroy the paltry resistance and pick up a shield for my tank. -9 AC without spell buffs, so he should be able to stand up to Y once he's got a bit of help. Now back in Kuldahar, hoping to buy some extra magical aid.

[ 08-18-2004, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]